[Report] 3-4 at Dream Wizards with Meyer U/G Madness

[Raven Fire]

This will be an extremely brief summary of my play at yesterday’s bi-monthly Vintage tournament (5-Proxy) at Dream Wizards (in Rockville, MD). If you are looking for a play-by-play style report, I’m sorry. This will be a quick and dirty affair. Whenever I take notes, I do poorly, so I’ve stopped trying. Anyway, there were only 16 participants so it was 4 rounds breaking to top 8. I played JP’s U/G Madness (Odyssey Block Constructed plus FoW, Wastes, and 5 pieces of power). The variations I made were so insignificant I won’t bother with a deck list unless someone requests it.

Final Results (please correct me if I made any mistakes):
First/Second (ID to split prize): Gay/R and FCG
Third/Fourth: Draw 7 and U/G Madness (me)
5 – 8: Tog, FCG, and 7/10 Split x2

Pre-tourney: Everyone always writes about their wild road trips, etc. I woke up at 6:30 and made a latte for my wife. I got my daughters dressed and sent my family off to church. I did some grocery shopping and then made the 45 minute drive down to Rockville. Wasn’t that exciting!

Round 1 vs. $T4KS (old-school style)
Game 1: He plays a lot of cheap artifacts and tangles me down.
Game 2: My Null Rod and Wastelands keep him from stabilizing while I beat with dogs.
Game 3: My Null Rod and Wastelands do very little against his opening grip of 3 Workshops and a Smokestack. It’s hard to keep up when you don’t have any permanents…

Round 2 vs. Enduring-Bombardment
Game 1: I play cautiously and don’t allow him to get the three combo pieces into play. I beat down with Rootwallas and Dogs.
Game 2: See above

Round 3 vs. John with Gay/R (eventual co-winner)
Game 1: We each whack the other’s lands and he gains the tempo edge. A Curious Faerie gets him the cards he needs. His Factory and Lavamancer finish me off.
Game 2: I pitch Wonder to block his Curious Faerie. Beatings follow.
Game 3: He can not handle the secret of steel. His valiant effort with 2 Maze of Ith ends when I resolve Back to Basics. A flying Wurm with Sword of Fire and Ice is the hotness.

Round 4 vs. Bryan with FCG (eventual co-winner)
We ID into the Top 8

With my 2-1-1 record, I’m the 8th seed.

Top 8 vs. Gronx with 7/10 Split
I’m not very optimistic heading into this round as my opponent is currently undefeated. Marc (PTW) prophetically states, “Your deck’s got Null Rods, Wastelands, and Force of Will. You’ve got a chance.�

Game 1: He mulligans down to 5 and my Wastelands and FoWs keeps him from developing. My Wurm and Rootwallas eventually overwhelm his Trike.
Game 2: His gambit of a first turn Trinisphere meets my Force of Will. A second turn Null Rod and some mana screw stunts any further development. He is able to Rack the Rod (also taking his own Mox), but I had already put a second on the top of my deck with a Brainstorm. Flying Aquameoba beat downs proceed with support of the little lizards.

Top 4 vs. Bryan with FCG (eventual co-winner)
Game 1: Lots of little red men turn sideways. I’m able to put out some chump blockers, but my Wurm gets Gempalmed and I am overrun.
Game 2: I mulligan to 6 and play Tropical Island, go. My opponent plays a Taiga and Lotus. He sacs the Lotus for a Warchief and I Brainstorm hoping to find a FoW. I don’t find one and see that I won’t be drawing a second land for at least a couple turns. He then plays a Lackey and swings putting a Matron into play. I scoop.

I end up taking home 12 packs of Fifth Dawn. I got a Crucible, 2 Beacons, and a Bringer.

Thanks for reading! Constructive critique is always appreciated.

[Bob The Builder]

Nice report, like you said, short, ... , but good.

Anyhow, I would be interested to see the decklist you plaid, minor chainges can make a huge dif.

Or at least set up a link to the original JP's U/G Madness decklist. And tell us what went out, and what went in and why...

[skecreatoR]

It's called search.

1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire
3 Null Rod
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Aquamoeba
4 Brainstorm
4 Circular Logic
2 Deep Analysis
4 Force of Will
1 Gush
1 Time Walk
2 Wonder
4 Arrogant Wurm
4 Basking Rootwalla
4 Wild Mongrel

Lands:
3 Forest
3 Island
4 Polluted Delta
1 Strip Mine
4 Tropical Island
4 Wasteland

Sideboard:
3 Back to Basics
4 Oxidize
4 Stupifying Touch
3 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Wonder

Yet, jpmeyer advocated the use of Chill's in the sideboard [right here], so I'm not entirely sure this is the 100% correct version, yet it seems very close to what Raven played because he definetly played with Sword of Fire/Ice. [/url]

[Shirow66]

Anyone else who feels that Gush is less than optimal in this deck?
I've removed it for the third Wonder, as getting a Wonder fast is better than getting a Gush at some point.

[Serin]

I often pitch gush to FoW because of the low land count, making it hard to get 2 islands.
But, on the other side, it can act as a game finisher with an unblocked mongrel, and sometimes as a mana producer, when you only have a tropical and a island for example (albeit very narrow use).

What I dont understand is the lack of Frantic search, it acts as a digger, and a discard outlet.

[gashole]

I'll agree that I've been trying to fit in the third Wonder maindeck, and Gush was probably the one to go. There have been so many games where I've noted if I had WonderTwinPowerActivated, I would have just won the game. I mean, it's not a good sign when I'm up against a wall and my opponents say "Looking for Wonder?" on more than one occassion.

The last local tourney I played in was 50% Goblins (2 FCG, 1 crazy sligh), and I came packing 3 Chills in place of the SoFIs. I'd love to tell you how they worked out, but I never drew one. I've been having a seriously difficult time against FCG, such that I'm probably going to switch decks to something that has better game against it.

[kirdape3]

Gush is randomly good.  You'll get into situations when you could use extra cards in hand to kill them outright, and Gush will refill your hand and/or give you worthy things to toss at the dog and the Meobs.

[gashole]

kirdape3's argument is exactly why I haven't officially made the switch yet. But I gotta think that either Deep Analysis or Gush has to go. 3x Wonder just feels more right.

[jpmeyer]

I'm trying to figure out the 3rd Wonder too, since you really need to cut it from the SB in order to fit in the 4th Chill.

[stallymcstallstall]

remind me again why aquamoeba is being used more than merfolk looter?  is the three power body and constant madness outlet better than drawing a card?  or is it replaced by bazaar?  
congrats on the win.

[Matt]

remind me again why aquamoeba is being used more than merfolk looter?  is the three power body and constant madness outlet better than drawing a card?

You got it exactly.

[Raven Fire]

Nice report, like you said, short, ... , but good.

Anyhow, I would be interested to see the decklist you plaid, minor chainges can make a huge dif.

Thanks for the support!

skecreatoR was kind enough to post JP's decklist.  Here are my changes:
maindeck:
-1 Forest
+1 Wooded Foothills
That's it.  I just like the extra fetch that can grap a basic forest if there is a chance of Wastelands as well as the usual Trop. and also helps build the yard for Logic.

Sideboard:
-2 Oxidize
+1 Naturalize
+1 Null Rod
-2 Stupefying Touch
+2 Stifle

The Naturalize is there for Food Chain (and random jank) and the fourth Rod is to really stick it to all the Workshop based decks.  The Stifles are there because I find them to be amazing and Dream Wizards usually has a fair number of Fish decks (thanks to PTW success there).

[jpmeyer]

Wait, what does Stifle do against Fish?

[Kowal]

It stops opposing wastelands or lavamancer activations.

[Googleboots]

And Curiosity triggers, or even Cloud of Faeries' CITP ability...uh, fetches(if it's Gay/r), Voidmage counterings(again, only Gay/r)

Mendence

[jpmeyer]

Stupefying Touch stops Lavamancer and Voidmage Prodigy permanently and without the cost of a card, as opposed to Stifle which works once and costs a card.

And are any of those effects actually worth a card, espescially considering the fact that you have to side cards out to move in these Stifles?  Or considering the fact that you're the beatdown and shouldn't be sitting around with a reactive, situational card?

After cutting Null Rod for the 2 Stupefying Touches you have left and the 3rd Wonder, I certainly wouldn't want to cut something like say, Basking Rootwalla for Stifle.  Rootwalla is at least a 2-for-1, which Touch is in a way (1-for-0 anyway).

[twn_domn]

Stupefying Touch is a must.  I agree with the SB choice about Chill.  This deck definately needs some work against FCG/ random sligh deck.

[Raven Fire]

Wait, what does Stifle do against Fish?

Well, I was mainly focusing on the 5 Strip effects and 4-5 Fetches when I was putting my board together, but in retrospect the Secret of Steel and Back to Basics were what actually tagged in.

ps - JP, I'm still curious, how does one calculate the number of men-children in a deck?  And what does your board look like at this point in time?
Thanks